Barbecue grills are well-known for use in cooking and preparing food. While various styles and cooking methods are utilized, a grill generally cooks food by directing heat at the food from below a supportive surface. Regardless of the heat source type (i.e. wood, coals, gas, etc.), grills present problems in cooking the food. For instance, it is often difficult to thoroughly and evenly cook, or even prepare the food. Accordingly, users have developed various devices and methods to promote more efficient cooking, while others assist in flavoring of the food. For example, rotisserie and smoking devices have been devised.
Rotisserie style cooking involves the rotation of food over a heat source. This technique requires a device that simultaneously supports and rotates the meat above direct heat. Generally, long rods or baskets may be used to skewer or hold food, which is then mechanically or manually rotated to evenly cook the surface of the food. While rotation of the food evenly cooks the food, the exterior surface cooks more quickly than the inner contents.
Smoking style cooking is another developed technique to prepare food in a barbecue grill. This technique flavors, cooks, and/or preserves food by exposing it to the smoke from a device holding burning or smoldering plant materials (i.e. wood). Generally, a smoking device, when used in a barbecue grill, is a perforated metal box holding water-soaked wood smoking chips. The box is positioned on the grill's supportive surface, which is above the heat source and next to the food. As the chips dry out, smoke encompasses surface area of the food, which then provides a unique flavor. Although the smoking devices provide unique flavor and help prevent the meat from drying out, the flavors are applied unevenly and generally limited to woods chips.
In yet another cooking method, U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,501 discloses an apparatus for cooking poultry, which consists of a shallow pan and a lid. The lid fits over the pan, and includes multiple drain holes and a centrally located opening. The lid holds an upwardly extending, hollow, perforated poultry-supporting tower on its upper surface. This detachable tower is mounted over the centrally located opening such that steam generated within the pan during cooking rises up into the tower, and escapes through perforations in the detachable tower. The steam infuses into the center of the poultry, much like a so called “beer can chicken”. The tower is detachable from the lid, and is interchangeable with alternative towers of differing lengths and circumferences to accommodate various sizes of poultry. The '501 patent discloses a device that only accommodates poultry. Infusing heat and flavor into the center of other types of food, such as, for example, extremities of poultry would be more difficult. Furthermore, other problems occur with such a design. For instance, steam vented from this design cannot infuse the food efficiently, and the design does not employ a sealed chamber to divert the steam appropriately.